Back to School, and Meal Planning

So, I have not been the best meal planner, and sometimes that leads to a week of Taco Bell and Hot Dogs.   Bad for the budget, bad for the waist.  I have decided to make a change.  I have created for my family an 8 week meal rotation!

This meal rotation includes lunches, snacks, and breakfasts.  I am not married to the rotation, and I am happy to make changes that my family request.  However, they must “submit” the request prior to the trip to the grocery store.  Once I have gone to the grocery store, the list is set in stone.

Let’s start with breakfast.  I don’t really want my children eating cereal and cinnamon toast every day for breakfast.  I am by no means providing a “well balanced” breakfast, but at least mix it up for them, and always try to include fruit.  The breakfast rotation looks like, Monday is smoothie, Tuesday is Cereal with Fruit, Wednesday is Toaster Strudel, with yogurt, Thursday is Cinnamon Toast, with fruit,  Friday is Eggo (waffle or pancake) with fruit.  Saturday has a rotating “big Breakfast” schedule, which        has things like Omelets, and Bacon and Eggs, and Sausage gravy and Biscuits.  Saturday morning is the day that my whole family can eat together.  Sunday alternates between Belgium waffles, (I use a box mix) and Scrambled Eggs. 

For my family, with 4 children, a good meal plan makes a world of difference.  Also, a small amount of prep work can make a world of difference on evenings when there are sports practices.  As I said, I am not married to the plan, and honestly, it is my DH, JJ, who usually has to make sure that the kids eat their breakfast, and make it.  Our breakfast plan, though, is one that my daughters, 9 and 8, can make themselves.

 For lunch, I have done things a little differently.  I have had a few friends tell me that my lunch plan is cruel, but I believe this will work best for my family.  In past years my girls have pretty much bought lunch at school every single day.  (My boys are not yet in school, so they always ate lunch at home).  Well my older son starts kindergarten this year, which means next year he will be eating lunch at school as well. In our elementary school, lunch is $2.35.  That is close to $50 every two weeks for my girls to each lunch at school.  They would occasionally pack, but it was rare.  This year, they will be allowed to buy lunch up to twice a week, and pack the rest of the week.  Each week there is one think to pack.  For example, on the first week of school, they will pack Ham Sandwiches.  All three days, will be Ham Sandwiches.  The sides can change, but the “main course” will not.  This does not mean that they will be eating Ham Sandwiches 3 days a week, every week all year.  There is an 8 week lunch rotation as well.  One week it is Ham Sandwiches, the next week, Ravioli (in a thermos, that is their favorite lunch to pack), then Peanut butter and Jelly, Raman Noodles, homemade “lunchable”, Turkey pocket,  Salami and Cream cheese, and finally “request week.”  There will also be a sweet treat available, for lunches, like cookies, or M & M’s,

 Snacks are another issue.  My girls often need to brink a snack to school, either because their lunch is too early (10:30), or vey late, (1:00).  Well without an available snack list, they were scrambling for something, and ended up eating pretzels most days.  Poor girls.  This time there is, you guessed it, an 8 week cycle for snacks.  Each week there is a list of available snacks.  This helps me when grocery shopping, and choosing snacks for school, or after school, or on the way to a soccer game.  They include healthy snacks like fresh fruits, and vegetables, string cheese,  yogurt (Healthy, meh), nuts, sunflower seeds, and peanut butter. Also includes not so healthy like, chips, popcorn, pop tarts, pretzels, granola bars, graham crackers and crackers with cheese.  I have also includes some “super snacks.”  These are bigger snacks, for home, if dinner will be late, or something similar.  These are homemade pizza bagels, “nachos” (tortilla chips with melted cheese), salami with cream cheese, half sandwiches, and Quesadillas. 

 With the snack lists for each week, I know what to buy, and everyone in the family knows what snacks are available. 

And finally, the dinners.  I had put a lot of thought into my dinner plan.  I didn’t want pasta every night.  I thought of different “types” of dinners, and tried to put one in each week.  I also made sure that once a week there was a meal that always had enough leftover for another dinner.   For your family the types may be different, but for mine they were, Sandwiches, Pasta, Casserole and Soups, Mexican, Family favorites, and Super Quick (like hot dogs).  I thought of 8 dishes for each category, and then spread them across an 8 week plan.  I made sure to include one dish from each category each week, and at least one dish per week, that could be eaten on two nights.  I also tried to schedule the meals that took a little longer to prepare on the days of the week that we didn’t have as much going on, and to schedule in such a way that leftovers, and quick meals could be eaten on the  busiest nights.

So far this plan is working great for us, and it really takes a lot of the weekly planning and stress out of my life.